RECORDS OF SOUTH-EAST AFRICA. .431 



give, talking airih* of difficult native languages (most still 

 awaiting the attention of the expert linguist) and of their compara- 

 tive philology into the bargain, as a very light thing. 



In gauging the advance of Bantu comparative philology, 

 which is the subject of the present writer, we learn the reassuring 

 fact that now there are many excellent authorities on individual 

 dialects, or even groups of them, but the popular mind does not 

 seem to realise that this is not the same thing. It is as though, 

 in the Aryan sphere, any student of French or German were 

 imagined to be a Brugmann, or, on the other hand, the professor 

 of Aryan philology were required also to teach, as a par-ergon, 

 Portuguese, Russian, Welsh and a few other tongues as well. 



Returning to Dr. Theal and his South-East Africa Records, 

 it is necessary to recall the course of his life. I learn from his 

 family that the late Dr. Theal left St. John, Kew Brunswick, 

 in 1859 for Sierra Leone, at which place he spent two years. 

 From there he worked his passage to Port Elizabeth. Then he 

 walked to Knysna where he opened a school. His object in 

 going to Knysna was that he was told that he would get a 

 good knowledge of Dutch in that district. Then he walked from 

 Knysna to East London, at which place he also opened a school 

 and edited a newspaper. Next he went to Kingwilliamstown. 

 At all these places he was gathering information in the hopes 

 of some day writing a South African History. 



After these varied efforts to instruct himself and others in 

 the history and possibilities of Africa, which were to merge into 

 his life-work, he had the opioortunity of service as a government 

 servant, in magistrate's work, and finally as historiographer at 

 the Cape and Keeper of the Grey Collection. 



This work at the centre of things was interrupted, in the 

 inconsequent way our changing Governors had in those days, 

 with their imported, but not always enlightened, values of 

 utility, by Sir Gordon Sprigg ; but happily that breezy Providence. 

 Cecil Rhodes, turned the curse into a blessing, by maintaining 

 Dr. Theal in Europe, studying at various libraries. 



On the death of Cecil Rhodes, the work practically ceased 

 for a time, because there were no private funds. Rhodes wanted 

 him to go to Egypt. His own desire to search in the East has 

 been referred to above. 



My aim in this short i^aper is, I think, one needing to 

 be emphasised : it is to show that Governments and others, who 

 have the appointment of men to work at very special research, 

 should be patient, and not hastily interrupt that work. It is 

 very possible that some may be found to say of Dr. Theal, as 

 was apparently- thought by Sir Gordon Sprigg, that a better 

 man — or one who would suit them better — might be found for 

 such a post. It is nearly always possible, especially for those 

 whose main interest is elsewhere, and to whom perhaps the 

 research in question is not a familiar subject, to conceive of one' 

 who would be, ideally, a better-trained researcher, but fact is a 

 hard master, and history a critic full of irony. The fact is tliat 

 we have been living ever since on that work of Dr. Theal, which 

 the authorities of the time did not, apparently, think it worth 

 while to continue. Ideally, no doubt, Portuguese students should 



